Daniel and Spike: You Don't Know What You've Got
by Meriem Clayton
Summary: Daniel forms a strong friendship with a new SG1 team member but his relationship with Sam is in danger. Things are complicated when Daniel is the target of espionage. Sequel in Shot Through the Heart. Crossover with Buffy TVS. NOT slash.
1. Default Chapter

Notes

This story was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt has been made to copyright any characters which may not have been originally created by the author, and no profit is made from this work of fiction. Any original characters and the stories themselves are the property of the author. No changes were made to the story with this update. I just broke it up into chapters to make it easier to read.

This story begins a series that continues with "Shot Through the Heart," "Must I Go Bound," "Love Hurts," and "Closing Time."

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The place was just plain nasty. Even an interesting ruin would have had trouble redeeming the mud, masses of rotting vegetation, and chittering, gibbering, creepy animal life. Sam and Teal'c had gone off in the opposite direction and left the other half of SG-1 to reconnoiter this charmless bog.

"What IS that smell?" Daniel complained.

"Which one?" his companion asked cheerfully. 

"You can distinguish different bad smells? It just smells like one colossal stink to me," Daniel asked distractedly, his attention focused on finding a place to sit down and review the MALPH reconnaissance data that wouldn't wind up coating the middle third of his body with the mud already caking his lower legs and boots.

"Remember our arrangement. You use your brain box Dr. Daniel Jackson, Ph.D. I handle the heavy lifting. Don't strain yourself." 

"Sometimes Doug, a straight answer is really helpful." 

"Nothing smells remotely like food is the main thing," Douglas replied. Daniel nodded. That fitted in with the MALPH data which had showed no sign of civilization.

Daniel checked his watch. Thank God. It looked like they needed to head back to the gate now if they were going to be there for their rendezvous with the rest of the team. Before he could make that happy announcement, Douglas said quietly, "I hear something Danny."

"What direction? Any idea what it is?" Daniel said immediately alert. Douglas' hearing was to be respected.

"In the direction our leaderette and Teal'c took and a little sunward."

"Part 2?" Daniel prompted.

Douglas cocked his head and thought about it. "Considering I can't see a thing but I can hear it, I'd say something really big or lots of smaller creepy beasties all together." 

Daniel keyed his radio. "Sam?"

She immediately answered," What've you got?"

"Douglas hears something in your direction from us and a little sunward. He says it's probably something big or a crowd of somethings. Meet us at the gate as quickly as possible, okay?" Daniel said, his heart in his throat, thinking of how close whatever it was would be to Sam and Teal'c.

"I believe I am still in command of this mission, Dr. Jackson," Sam responded crisply. "Get to the gate ASAP and let me worry about what Teal'c and I do."

Douglas had started to lip sync and pantomime Sam three words into her reprimand. As soon as Daniel turned off the radio, he said, "Seems like the Queen Bee must not be getting all the royal jelly she needs."

Daniel bit his lip. The tension between Douglas and Sam was always there. Eventually he said, "She hasn't been herself lately."

The two men began to proceed to the gate at a fast, ground eating trot. Both were in superb physical condition and could keep a pace up like this for a long time and still converse without getting winded. At first they had to pay attention to their footing but as the ground got firmer underfoot, Douglas said, "You know those classic Trek episodes I had you watch?" 

Daniel groaned. Douglas had him on a crash course catching him up on the pop culture he had ignored much of his life. Daniel thought Douglas's notion of what that constituted was some 20 years out of date or more but what did he know? Douglas waited for an affirmation from Daniel before he continued even though they both knew there was no way he could have forgotten something like Spock going through the Vulcan version of the 7 year itch so quickly. "Sure," Daniel said. 

"You remember how every episode Kirk does something rash and emotional and everyone says 'This just isn't like you Jim' when in fact it is the ONLY way we have ever seen him act?"

"And…" Daniel said, not paying very close attention. He could see the gate in the distance now but not Sam or Teal'c.

"The whole time I've known Dr. Colonel Her Majesty Samantha Carter she's been like this."

They were now within a few yards of the gate. Daniel said to Douglas, "Doug," and paused.

Douglas took the cue and supplied, "Shut up." And Douglas did, in fact, get quiet. Douglas tended to keep a constant stream of chatter. This irritated some people but Daniel had learned early on that if he asked Douglas to shut up, he usually did, at least for awhile.

Daniel keyed the radio again but he got nothing back from the others. 

"What do you hear now?" he asked Douglas.

"It's up that way," he said gesturing toward a wooded slope climbing up to a ridge. "I think whatever it is has stopped moving."

Daniel immediately contacted Stargate Command through the gate. He didn't take the time to make it a two way conversation but rapped out. "Colonel Carter and Teal'c are missing. Atherton and I are going to investigate something suspicious that is up a hill due west of the gate. We need reinforcements ASAP."

As Douglas and Daniel began to run toward the hill, Douglas said, "She's gonna ream you a new one if it turns out you called back up in unnecessarily."

Daniel shrugged. "I devoutly hope that that's exactly what happens because it would mean that they're okay."

As the men neared the tree line, they slowed down and moved more slowly to cut down on the noise and keep cover. Daniel finally began to hear the sound, something like a camp meeting if the participants were all snakes. As the sound grew louder, they moved with more and more caution. They saw light ahead through the trees and crept behind some thick bushes from which they could look out at a large meadow, about two acres in size, with an unconscious Sam and Teal'c in the middle. Shuffling around them in a slow circle dance were about thirty raptor like creatures, reminiscent of, but fatter than, the ones in Jurassic Park. Occasionally one would dart forward to feel Sam's or Teal'c clothes or hair.

Daniel signed to Douglas, "I thought you said you did not smell food."

Douglas departed from the American Sign Language Daniel had used to employ a much older and more universal sign to indicate his opinion of Daniel's statement. Then in ASL he said, "I do have my standards. I have never bitten into anything remotely like that."

They watched for a few minutes, seizing up their opponents. "The smart thing to do would be to go down, meet the reinforcements, and lead them back up here," Daniel finally signed.

"The smart thing. Well, that would be you, not me. If you want evidence, just look at my love life." Douglas looked at Daniel and then back out into the clearing. He signed, "Why do not you go back and get them. I am going to try something."

Daniel tapped Douglas's leg to get his attention and then put as much vehemence as you could into an ASL statement,"I am NOT leaving you here to do something risky without back up."

Douglas nodded and signed, "Okay. Lay covering fire for me but be prepared to run. This may not work." Without giving himself an opportunity to change his mind, Douglas suddenly leapt up and, as he charged into the clearing, he let out an unearthly, and for that matter, unP3F897ly, shriek that he sustained long enough to make any singer at the Met proud. Daniel immediately starting taking out the ugly creatures in Douglas's immediate vicinity. Douglas grabbed a creature, snapped its head back and threw the lifeless body on the next nearest raptor. Daniel kept firing and Douglas kept raptor crunching and tossing and shrieking. He was wearing his game face and totally into it. The creatures were, as he had hoped, completely unnerved and didn't get organized to charge at Daniel. Daniel began to hear approaching men crashing through the forest behind him. The cavalry had arrived. The creatures put the terrifying zat fire, the shrieking, phenomenally strong wildman, and the impeding arrival of who knew what together and took off in a disorderly retreat. Douglas immediately dropped out of berserker mode. 

When SG-15 arrived in the clearing, they found Daniel and Douglas trying to rouse Sam and Teal'c. SG-15 was duly impressed by the bodies of at least 18 reptilian pug uglies strewn around them and the legend of Daniel and Douglas got further burnished. Since no one in Cheyenne Mountain other than General O'Neill and SG-1 knew the truth about Douglas, Daniel always got an equal share of the credit. He didn't really like it but he couldn't argue with the desirable side effects.

The medical corpsmen who had followed SG-15 up the hill put Teal'c and Sam on stretchers and carried them back to the gate. By the time they reached it, Teal'c had started to rouse. Sam, on the other hand, was still out cold. She didn't regain consciousness until after she had been tucked into bed in the infirmary. Daniel and Douglas were not there to see it. Daniel got reassurances from the doctor in charge that she had a simple concussion before he left. He felt reasonably sure that if he waited around for her to come to, she would not be suffused with gratitude over his saving her life. There was a very good chance that somehow this would all get turned around to be his fault, his and Douglas'.

Daniel and Douglas got cleaned up, the amount of mud sluicing off them down the drain an astounding thing. An hour later, they were leaning against the end of the bar in their favorite tavern, Aggie's. It always had a dart game going, served Guinness on tap (Douglas's minimal requirement), preferred to keep the TV turned to soccer instead of wrestling or football (another must as far as Douglas was concerned), and made really good onion rings (Daniel's one demand). For a man who had once been described by Jack O'Neill as a "cheap date" because of his relative inability to hold his liquor, Daniel had undergone terrific personal growth. He was now staring moodily into his second pint of Guinness and Douglas was probably the only person in the place who could tell that the first had affected him at all.

"So if She wasn't always like this," Douglas began with no need to clarify the pronoun. She with a capital letter conferred on it through verbal emphasis was always Sam. "What do you think caused her to get so," he hesitated trying to come up a word that captured his thought but wouldn't bring Daniel down on his head.

"So pissy," Daniel supplied. Douglas raised an eyebrow at Daniel's willingness to use a word that critical about Sam.

"She's mad at me because I'm not willing to be her girlfriend any more," Daniel said. He snorted, "She got used to years of her going on about Jack this and Jack that and then Pete this and Pete that and me being all sympathetic and sensitive to her feelings. And she's mad at you because she blames you for me getting up on my hind legs."

Douglas clapped Daniel sympathetically on the back and the two of them took long pulls on their pints. Daniel looked up to see Douglas cocking his head with a sly smile stealing across his beautifully cut lips. "Casual like Danny, take a look at the two dollies at that table next to the door. Blonde and redhead."

"Beautiful women," Daniel said without much interest.

"They're talking about us. The blonde's interested in me but the redhead is speculating optimistically about your, um, fancy parts."

The redhead was stunning but Daniel jumped ahead to respond to Douglas's eventual point before he got there. "You know how I feel about casual sex."

Douglas looked at him disgustedly, "Yeah, yeah, still mourning Sha'ree, not wanting to cheapen your memory of how it was with her, respect for true intimacy, in love with someone else, fear of disease, saving yourself for marriage, possible priestly vocation, performance anxiety, really shy."

Daniel chuckled. "You made the last few up and you know it."

Douglas looked at him hopefully, "You wouldn't mind just going over and talking to them with me while I work on doing whatever I end up doing, would you?"

Daniel punched Douglas in the arm. "You know you're all talk. You are still completely hung up on that blonde with permanent PMS you were with in California."

Since they were focused on the region of the door, they noticed immediately when a lean man with close cropped silver hair walked in. "Don't look now but pater familis has entered the building," Douglas said. They watched Jack scope out the crowded room and zero in on them. 

As he made their way toward them, weaving through the crowd and dodging waitresses with trays of drinks, Douglas said to Daniel, "I think I'll establish a beachhead over there with our lovely new friends. You're the only one here O'Neill is at all interested in talking to." 

By the time Jack was standing next to Daniel, Douglas had won himself an invitation to sit down and was sliding an arm around the blonde. Daniel observed, as much to himself as to Jack, "He is really smooth when he wants to be."

Jack didn't bother to respond. "What are we drinking?" he asked trying to get the bartender's attention.

Daniel lifted his pint. "Is there anything else?"

Jack nodded and signaled to the bartender to get him what Daniel was drinking. "So, Jack, what do you need from me?" Daniel asked flatly.

Jack looked mildly offended. "I can't have a drink with a friend?"

"You haven't, not for months. Douglas and I come here all the time, everyone knows that. On the other hand, I've never seen you in here before. If you were looking for me, or for both of us, to talk about something you want to be off the record, we wouldn't be hard to find."

Jack busied himself accepting the glass from the bartender and taking a first drink. "Friendship is a two-way street Daniel. BUT if you want it that way, I need to talk with you about the unhealthy team dynamics I see building in SG-1."

"Do your eyes glow now General? 'Unhealthy team dynamics' didn't come out of the mouth of the Jack O'Neill I know."

"Damn it Daniel, you're developing a mouth just like that monster over there," Jack said gesturing at Douglas.

Daniel didn't try to hide his anger. "He's a good man, not a monster. A man who has gone through some incredible things in order to be able to make a difference, make up for wrongs he really couldn't have prevented."

Jack changed the subject to say, "Your commanding officer and your friend Samantha Carter is lying in the infirmary and you're here drinking and sizing up potential pick ups."

Daniel looked at Jack wearily, pulled out his cell phone, and hit Recent Calls. Holding it in front of Jack, he stated, "I've talked to the infirmary twice since we left the Mountain." He put the cell away. "I don't know why I'm bothering to defend myself but do you really think she'd even want me there?"

Jack realigned the conversation again. "You've created a team within a team, you and Douglas. The two of you have an unbelievable rep with the other teams. Our own homegrown Batman and Robin. Sam is beginning to look like mere window dressing."

"SG-1's performance is higher than it has ever been. Use any indice you want," Daniel said, "but you're all wrapped around an axle because Colonel Carter's feeling unappreciated. What does that tell you Jack?"

Jack was clearly flabbergasted. It almost sounded like Daniel was accusing him of having feelings for Sam, feelings beyond years of friendship. Before he could form a rational answer to continue the conversation, Daniel said, "I need specifics Jack. It isn't part of my job to be Sam's handmaiden. I don't think you can find any way that I have failed to meet and exceed the requirements that actually are part of my job. But if you can name something I have failed to do that is part of my responsibilities as a team member, I will correct it. And if Doug's done anything he shouldn't, or has failed to do something he should, I'll take the responsibility of seeing that he shapes up." He wasn't looking at Jack anymore but staring at something that only he saw. "She can't see me Jack. Not at all. And I got tired of being invisible. You wouldn't understand since she's never had trouble with her eyesight where you're concerned." He made eye contact with Jack. "Is there anything else General?"

Jack started to say something, changed his mind, shook his head and left without further comment. Daniel got himself a third pint and went to join Douglas and their new friends. As he slid into the booth, he discovered that the blonde, Corinne, was absolutely tailor made for Douglas to impress. She was a professor of English literature, specializing in Victorian poets. He already had her spellbound at his knowledge of the period and its writers. The redhead, Briana, was visibly getting fidgety. She was delighted at an opportunity to get the conversation off Gerald Manley Hopkins and his conceit of things being instressed. Introductions were made and the typical work and other identifications shared.

Briana said to Douglas, "I go by my middle name too."

Douglas raised an eyebrow at this unexpected knowledge on Briana's part, "Witchy woman."

"Not really." She indicated his heavy id bracelet with the initials WDA by way of explanation as to how she knew Douglas wasn't his first name. "It really causes no end of trouble. Do you ever think of using your first name?"

"That's what they called me when I was a sprout. Not the best memories. I'd gone by a nickname for years that didn't fit any more. Calling me Douglas is Danny's doing." He looked at Daniel warmly. "Sort of gave me an opportunity to redefine myself."

Corinne looked briefly troubled, her gaydar kicking in and leading her to wonder if she was wasting her time on someone who wasn't built to appreciate her. Douglas looked down at her and gave her his patented heavy lidded leer and that was the end of that. 


	2. Chapter 2

For the next day few days Daniel worked on translating some recently retrieved Goa'uld texts in an unusual dialect. He was really enjoying the challenge and didn't mind the fact that their next mission had been delayed because the doctors wanted to make sure Sam was completely recovered from her concussion. 

The delay was harder on Douglas. Like Teal'c, he didn't really have a specialty that gave him a lot to do when they weren't in the field. He drifted in and out of Daniel's office, too antsy to stay in one place for very long. When he was there, he claimed the ratty, overstuffed armchair Daniel had schlepped into the Mountain. It had required a lot of red tape but it was unreasonably comforting when Daniel was tired and discouraged. Not that he got to sit in it much any more. Since Douglas lived at the Mountain where he had a combination bedroom and living area, the powers that be had decided he didn't need a separate office. Douglas said that working in his room was like eating in bed. "No boundaries, you know. Civilized living is about boundaries." Daniel's opinion was that actually Douglas, like Daniel himself, had spent way too many years essentially alone and preferred not to be alone if he didn't have to be.

If he stayed in Daniel's office very long, Daniel would pressure him to work on his Greek and Latin. The day before they were finally scheduled to go through the gate again, Douglas was in the midst of a Latin translation in a notebook on his lap. Daniel hit the same dead end he had been running up against for the last hour and leaned back in his chair. Time for a break. He looked over at Douglas. "How's it coming?"

"Why did I let you talk me into this," he complained."I didn't like Latin when I had it in school and I don't like it now."

"We had a deal," Daniel reminded him. "I let you subject me to your course in Pop Culture 101 and you refresh the Greek and Latin that were part of your classical education."

Douglas put the book on the floor. "We're still on tonight with Briana and Corinne?" 

Daniel nodded, hesitated a moment, and then said, "You know. There's something just not right about the two of them."

"Never look a gift filly in the choppers, Danny."

"Seriously. I was talking to Briana last night for awhile," Daniel began.

Douglas interrupted him, "Really. This is a new chapter for Dr. Dan, Boy Wonder."

Daniel responded, "Actually I'm Batman remember," alluding to Jack's description of them that Douglas had, of course, overheard.

Douglas disagreed, "I'm Batman, you're Robin. But continue."

Daniel continued as requested. "She said that Corinne made a point of getting to know her. It was a bit contrived and she thought Corinne was coming from a whole different place in terms of her interest."

Douglas said, "She's interested in Oscar Wilde but I assure you she's not wired up that way."

Daniel agreed. "Briana doesn't think so either but it also came out that it was Corinne's idea to go to Aggie's. Briana had never been there. I also found out that, amazing as this may be given our incredible appeal to the opposite sex, Briana really hadn't noticed us. It was Corinne who pointed us out and was trying to talk her into approaching us when you went over and introduced yourself."

Douglas said, "Okay, several points here. I know you were being sarcastic but we, in fact, are very attractive to the opposite sex. Back in the day, I had a lot of willing victims who almost didn't mind being bitten." He saw Daniel's expression. "Hey, I'm not proud of it and all their faces haunt me, but the fact remains that it's true. The bone structure seems to be the main ace in the hole. And you, Danny boy, are a major babe magnetic. That boyishness thing, which growing your hair back out has really helped, I might add, is what you need to work if you could ever get past Sha'ree and Her. Finally, it appears to me that you aren't saying there is something off about them, you are saying that there is something off about Corinne. I don't see it and what would the motivation be? It's not like I've got ducats stashed away."

"Douggie wake up and smell the security clearances. We are working on a top secret project. And you are an even more top secret project all by yourself. Don't you think it's slightly contrived that these two particular beautiful women show up in our favorite hang out. The one who takes an interest in you is an expert in your favorite period of poetry. If someone would have been watching you, they would have seen you skulking around Borders looking at that stuff."

"I do not skulk."

"You put other covers on them after you buy them and hide them in your room. I've got to assume you skulk when you purchase them. Anyway, to get back to the set up, the woman Corinne drags along for me is a fairly brilliant graduate student in linguistics. Now if you had to design two women to get us interested, could you do better?"

Teal'c loomed in the door just then and Douglas jumped up, delighted at a possible reprieve from his studies and from Daniel's wet blanket throwing. "Teal'c, my true, true friend. So GOOD to see you." He bowed deeply and swept out an arm for Teal'c to enter.

"It is good to see you too, DouglasAtherton," Teal'c said, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "I take it you do not mind being interrupted."

Douglas said, "It's a sacrifice stepping away from the Latin for awhile but anything for a teammate." He was grinning broadly.

Teal'c said, "I thought we could work on the sign language. It really works for you and DanielJackson and I should get better."

Douglas nodded enthusiastically. "How about we go on up topside to for that. I need a cig."

"It is noon, DouglasAtherton. We are not off world where that does not matter."

"There's plenty of shade at the entrance. The only thing that's going to be catching on fire is the end of my smoke." 

After they left, Daniel still wasn't ready to get back at it. Into the space that been occupied by arcane symbols, came thoughts of his conversation with Jack. He had been very hard on Sam. When he was honest with himself, he knew that. He stood up with a sudden resolution to go and offer an olive branch. 

He found her in one of the labs, staring at an Ancient device, a baffled expression on her face. When she looked up and saw him, just for a moment she looked glad. That was immediately replaced with a disinterested expression. She turned her full attention back to the puzzle in front of her and asked, "Can I help you with something Daniel?" sounding not at all interested in helping him with anything except out the door.

Daniel walked around so he was back in her field of vision. "I was wondering how you were feeling, the concussion and all."

"That was what five days ago and you just got around to wondering?" She sounded hurt, justifiably so.

"I've checked with the doc a few times. He said you were doing fine."

"There was a time when you would have asked me directly. Would have been here, I don't know, offering to make me tea and cross examining me to make sure I wasn't overdoing."

Daniel looked down discomforted. He sighed, "I've made a mess of things I guess Sam. Some things just weren't working for me any more and I didn't know how to do anything but just back off the whole friendship."

"Whatever." She started to turn away and then looked at his face, really looked at it. All the old familiar vulnerability, tenderness, and caring was there. She said decisively, "Let's start this over." She pointed at the door. He laughed slightly, went out, and reentered the lab.

"Hey Daniel," she greeted him warmly, acting glad to see him. "Take a look at this whatever here. Maybe you'll have an inspiration. I'm coming up dry."

For the next hour, they happily brainstormed, chasing wild ideas all over place, hugely enjoying the intellectual stimulation they had always found in each other. Then Daniel's glance fell on a Victoria's Secret catalog, incongruously lying next to her purse. "What's this?" he asked.

"I just don't have time to go shopping and I need some stuff for the honeymoon. I know it's a ways off but I just can't make up my mind." She opened up a page to peignoir sets. "Pete really isn't into my wearing anything but seems like it would be more special if…"

Daniel cut her off. "Too much information," he said in a defeated voice. "I've got to get back to my," he waved vaguely, "my stuff." Sam watched him leave, uncomprehending. It wasn't as if she had brought this up with your random coworker. This was Daniel. There was never anything they couldn't discuss.

That night when Daniel and Douglas picked up their dates at Briana's apartment, the women suggested that they eat Italian. Brianna wanted to go to the Tuscany. Daniel tried half-heartedly to talk her out of it, suggesting another restaurant instead. Douglas ganged up on him with Briana and Corinne and he acquiesced. When Douglas and Daniel were alone while the women went to the restroom, Douglas said, "You didn't want to come here because you know that this is Sam's favorite restaurant."

Daniel shrugged. Douglas said, So we run into her and Pete. I think it would be a really good idea for her to see you with someone else."

Daniel looked at him confused. "I thought you didn't like her and now you seem to be suggesting that I try to make her jealous? What would be the point unless I was trying to get her interested."

Douglas said, "No I don't like her but everybody else does so that's just me. I guess the way she treats you makes me think about the way I was never more than a stand in for the guy my ex really loves. But anyway, even if it doesn't make her jealous, maybe it would make her see you in more dimensions. So I am really hoping that she and Mr. Lucky do show up tonight."

Like magic, just at that moment, the waiter walked past them leading Pete and Sam to a table just a few feet away from their booth. Briana and Corinne were right behind them. Briana slid in next to Daniel and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Miss me," she asked slightly huskily.

Daniel laughed a little. "They stock the restroom with romance novels or what? Not that I don't appreciate the effect."

Briana laughed in return. "I'm glad you don't mind because you're just too yummy for me to play it cool." She rested her hand on his thigh and looked at him in way that any warm blooded man would have had trouble resisting. 

Pete and Sam walked up to the end of the booth. "Hey everybody," Pete greeted them. " We just wanted to come over and say hi."

"Good to see you Pete," Daniel said, reaching across Briana and shaking his hand. Douglas contented himself with a nod. "This is Corinne and Briana. Ladies this is Samantha Carter, one of our coworkers, and her fiancé, Lt. Pete Callahan."

Pete appeared to be as pleased to meet two beautiful women as any normal man. Sam was very reserved. Pete seemed to be oblivious to Sam's dampened reaction when he went on to say, "We'd love to have you join us if you like." From Sam's expression, this appeared to be completely Pete's idea. 

Without consulting the others, Douglas said, "That's really nice of you Pete. We ordered awhile ago so we're already ahead of you on the meal. We probably should pass but let's do it some other time." After Pete and Sam left, no one seemed at all unhappy with Douglas' executive decision. Throughout the meal, Briana was between Daniel and Sam's table. He felt too awkward about the situation anyway to look in Sam's direction. Briana stayed close and obviously very interested in him.

When it was Daniel's turn to make an executive decision, it was less popular. He parked in front of Briana's apartment and said, "Douglas, we've got that early meeting tomorrow morning. We need to say good night now." 

Corinne was objecting softly to Douglas in the backseat. Briana pulled him into a kiss and then said, "Surely another hour or so isn't going to matter." 

The hind brain was definitely agreeing with Briana but Daniel reminded himself that he really needed to get Douglas away from Corinne and he managed to say several flattering things but stay firm to his refusal to continue the evening. 


	3. Chapter 3

The next day they emerged from the star gate on P2X896 into what appeared to be a large amphitheater. The star gate had obviously been placed there for some sort of public ceremony. It appeared that the last use had been awhile ago. The pavement was cracked and barely visible through wind blown leaves and debris. Teal'c spotted the exit first and they followed him through the deep archway to come out onto a broad, deserted street encircling the amphitheater. There wasn't a sound except the wind.

Quiet streets, paved with brick, fed into the amphitheater from every direction as if it were the hub of a wheel. The buildings were of a massive architecture, all three or four stories tall, constructed of brick and stone with tile roofs. They were built butted up against each other and came right to the street with but a narrow walkway for the vanished pedestrians. Observing that the wooden doors were still on their hinges and that the narrow slits of windows still appeared to have glass, Daniel broke the silence to say, "They might have been gone awhile but I doubt it's been more than a generation."

There was a sudden flash of movement down a street opening in front of them. Two four-footed creatures dashed across the avenue and vanished in a cross street. Daniel said, "If there are scavengers or feral pets, people may have not been gone as long as we thought."

Sam directed, "Teal'c, Douglas, check out where the animals went. Daniel, you're with me." Nobody moved for a moment. Sam hadn't paired herself with Daniel for a very long time. Sam jerked her head toward the street in front of them and Douglas and Teal'c stirred to life and trotted off to investigate.

Sam and Daniel unholstered their weapons and held them ready to swing up into firing position if needed. They circled the amphitheater until they were opposite the direction the others had taken. As they moved down the street, Sam asked, "This Brittany you were with, you guys dating for awhile?"

"Briana." Daniel stretched the truth a little to say, "That wasn't our first date."

Sam said, "She was certainly all over you."

Daniel surprised her completely when he said, "You know, Sam, there are women that find me pretty exciting. What were her exact words, something like I was 'too yummy to play it cool.'"

Sam looked affronted. Daniel laughed humorlessly and said, "I can't tell you that but you can tell me what Pete prefers you wear or don't wear in bed?"

Sam didn't have an answer and they continued in silence for a few minutes until Daniel commented, "Every door is closed. They left in an orderly fashion."

Sam said, "Or they didn't leave." She pointed to a spot where leaves and dirt had accumulated. There appeared to be a footprint. She tried the nearest door. It was locked as was every other door they tried on that block. 

Sam called the others on the radio. "We're going to shoot open a door." She then nodded at Daniel and he fired his gun to demolish the lock area of a door. He pushed the door open with the end of the gun and it swung back to reveal a long windowless corridor with light at the end. They moved cautiously inside and discovered that the light was from a skylight made from many very small panes of glass at the top of a stairwell. There were no doors on the bottom floor. They climbed up a flight and tried the first door. Locked again. They tried kicking it open without success. Sam again warned the other team to expect the sound of gunshots and, again, they shot their way in. 

They were in a very large room with a waist-high railing ringing a rectangular opening in the middle. A ladder led down to a lower level. The upper room had a wooden floor strewn with large cushions and low tables. Scrolls lay open on the tables. Daniel looked at one and said, "Looks like Latin." 

Sam pointed. There was a pot of ink tipped over and the puddle of ink surrounding it was still wet. Sam and Daniel looked at each other. Sam immediately radioed Teal'c and Douglas to warn them but she didn't get an answer.

"Let's move out. We have to find the others," Sam ordered and Daniel nodded. They exited the building as quickly as possible and ran back to the amphitheater and around to the other side. Staying in the middle of the street, they went looking for their teammates. They found nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing.

Finally Sam said, "We need to get help. Back to the gate." They turned back up the street and suddenly were hit on the back of the head by stones thrown from the roof of one of the surrounding buildings. Daniel was knocked unconscious but Sam only stumbled and fell. Slightly dazed and disoriented she grabbed for her gun but it had fallen and slid away from her. Before she could get out her zat, she found herself entangled in a huge net.

SG-1 were reunited on the first floor of a dwelling similar to the one that Daniel and Sam had explored. All their gear was removed as well as their uniforms. The room they were in had no windows or doors. Considering they were now in their underwear, they were grateful that there was an unexplained warmth that left the air several degrees warmer than the 60ish temperatures outside. The twelve foot ceiling had a rectangular opening in it. The people ringing the railing above and looking down were all women.

Teal'c and Douglas, who both considered themselves to be superior fighting machines, were extremely embarrassed. It didn't seem to help their wounded pride at all that Daniel and Sam had been caught by the same primitive means. 

Daniel remained unconscious and Sam began to worry that he was seriously hurt. She sat on the floor holding him across her lap, cradling his head against her with one arm and gently trying to examine his skull with her other hand. Teal'c said very quietly to Douglas, "Some good may come out of this after all." 

Douglas admitted reluctantly, "I sure wouldn't take her on a bet but the poor lad doesn't want anyone else."

There were no children or teenagers in the crowd above. Many were elderly but they were on the average an attractive group and several were very pretty. Their expressions were more curious than hostile but there were a number with wicked looking clubs. It was clear that if they tried to climb out somehow, they would not be allowed to succeed.

Daniel moaned a little but didn't appear to be conscious, at least not to Sam. Douglas and Teal'c exchanged glances. Both thought it was a safe bet that he was, in fact, aware but enjoying his position too much to give it away, especially when he shifted slightly to get closer to Sam.

A woman with a flow of steel grey hair in a single long tress with a blue cord bound around it leaned over and called something to them in Latin. Douglas surprised Sam and Teal'c by responding in kind, granted haltingly, but in Latin. A lengthy exchange followed with the woman slowing her words considerably and patiently repeating herself. Eventually she and Douglas were able to establish a rudimentary level of communication. As Douglas understood her better, he seemed to be surprised and somewhat amused. Finally, she asked something that caused Douglas to look over at Daniel. Daniel nodded very slightly, alerting Sam to the fact that he was aware and had probably been for awhile. She dumped him unceremoniously on the floor. Douglas said something in Latin to the grey haired leader. The women above responded with wild enthusiasm, cheering and hugging each other, and blowing kisses that appeared to be directed at Daniel.

Daniel got to his feet a little woozily with a hand from Douglas. He took over the discussion, his Latin also slow but much smoother than Douglas'. After some more discussion, the grey haired woman said something to the woman next to her. She left and returned shortly with a bundle she dropped down to them. It was their clothes. Except for the women armed with clubs, the spectators all left.

Sam said to Daniel and Douglas, "Ok. What was all of that about?"

Daniel looked slightly embarrassed and was searching for words when Douglas blurted out, "They want to sign up for Danny's harem."

Daniel looked exasperated, "No need to be crude. There is a really difficult situation here sociologically."

Douglas snorted. "The thing is these women have been marooned here for a generation. They are starting to get old and die off and there are no men, no children. We're talking about a whole culture with a SOCIOLOGY that is in dire need of-"

Daniel cut him off and gave him a quelling look. "What Doug is trying to say is that they really want children and you've been eliminated as a woman, Teal'c because he isn't human, and after discovering that Doug doesn't have a heartbeat and his body is room temperature, they're not at all comfortable with him as a candidate progenitor. That leaves me."

"Well that's out of the question," Sam said indignantly.

"The problem is Sam that although they would deeply regret it, they promise to start in on all of you, one at a time, until I cooperate. I believe them."

"So you are going to go up there and start working your way through the population?" Sam asked incredulously.

"No I'm not. I am trying to explain artificial insemination to them. That if they let us go back through the gate we can introduce much more variety into the gene pool and give them a healthier future."

"Are they agreeing to that DanielJackson?" Teal'c asked. 

"Not yet but I'm working on them."

Teal'c tilted his head and said, "I do have one other question. What was all the cheering about?"

Douglas said, "I told them that Danny was able to father children. It wasn't just that though. Earlier she said something to the effect that the gods had surely blessed this since they had sent such a perfect man to them." Douglas was laughing now. "You're Mr. Universe with the alien babes, Daniel."

Sam found herself looking at Daniel standing there in his briefs and a t-shirt as the women above must have seen him. Not too shabby. He felt her looking at him and returned her gaze. She blushed.

They put their uniforms back on and then it was a rather tedious, waiting game for Sam and Teal'c as Daniel, with some assistance from Douglas, negotiated and negotiated in Latin. Finally Daniel announced that an agreement had been struck. He would stay as a hostage and the others would go through the gate to get the agreed upon medical assistance. If they returned and lived up to the terms of their agreement, Daniel would be free to go. 

After the others left, Daniel was initially quite uncomfortable with the women, knowing as he did what they were thinking when they looked at him. They decided he could be released from the holding area and over the first day or so, he gradually relaxed. The women were polite and charming. Their shyness was refreshingly different. He knew he would never be admired, sighed after, and waited on hand and foot like this again as long as he lived. 

Shortly before the deadline, Douglas returned to tell the women that there would be a delay but the agreement still held. He told Daniel that there was a snag in getting what was needed from sperm banks because of legal concerns within the Department of Defense. When the Stargate eventually became public, it was likely that this might come out some day. Legal questioned whether agreements donors had signed could be construed to allow taking their donations off planet to father alien babies. 

In the end Jack O'Neill cut through the problems and made it happen. Daniel returned to earth to find that the fact that he had been held captive by a bevy of attractive women who all wanted to have his child had managed to leak out. Everyone on the base knew some version of the story. Daniel had never really noticed the interest he got from women unless they were as obvious as Briana. They weren't the woman he loved and so he wasn't looking for it. Now, although Sam was clearly avoiding him, it was obvious most of the women on the base were sizing him up. It got to the point where he didn't want to leave his office.

He asked for a couple of weeks off and went to Jack's fishing cabin. There was still a distance there in the relationship but Jack had volunteered it and it didn't make sense to turn it down. The peace and quiet felt good for about three days. Then it began to get on his nerves. He was really looking for someone to show up and relieve the isolation when he saw a car wending its way up the dirt road. It was a big disappointment when two unknown men in suits got out and approached the front porch.

"Dr. Jackson?" the older of the two men asked.

"Yes. Can I help you?" Daniel said, not getting up from the wicker chair where he sat tipped back and comfortably established with a beer and a book.

"I'm Agent Carson with the FBI's division for classified security issues and this is Agent Romano." Both men flashed their shields. "We'd like to talk with you for a moment if we might."

"Nothing else on the calendar." Daniel said. He indicated the porch swing and the another wicker chair. "Have a seat." The men sat.

Daniel continued as the gracious host, "Can I get you a soft drink or a beer?"

The younger agent looked like he might like one but the older man quashed that immediately. He got right to it, "You and your friend William Atherton…"

Daniel interjected, "He goes by Douglas." 

The agent made a whatever gesture and continued, "The two of you have been seeing a Corinne Neimeister and a Briana Murphy." 

Daniel nodded emphatically, brought the chair down level, and leaned forward. "I told Douglas there was something fishy about Corinne's interest in him. Is she some sort of a spy?"

"Actually, Dr. Jackson, we're still investigating that possibility but we're absolutely certain that Ms. Murphy is a British agent."

"I don't want seem naïve but they are our allies and they were recently informed about the Stargate Program."

"Precisely but that doesn't mean they trust us completely or don't want independent confirmation of what we tell them. Our real concern is that we believe that while Ms. Murphy may have started out investigating the Stargate, she has stumbled across your friend Douglas. The reinstated Initiative Program is even more closely held than the Stargate."

The younger agent spoke up for the first time. "The majority opinion was that Mr. Atherton should be held within Cheyenne Mountain and not allowed to leave it except to go through the gate to other planets. However, the President felt that if he was working for us, he couldn't be treated like a slave."

"So what are you suggesting?" Daniel asked, not quite understanding where Romano was going with this.

"If we can't handle this situation neatly and immediately, your friend will be confined within Cheyenne Mountain or worse."

"Or worse," Daniel said his inflection rising. "Or worse?"

"Dr. Jackson," Carson said, glaring at Romano who evidently didn't know when to shut up. "We need your help, yours and Mr. Atherton's, to clean this up. We've talked to him and we have his full cooperation. Now we would like yours."

"Sure, anything, well that is anything that doesn't involve assassinating someone or torturing someone or…" 

Carson held up his hand to stop Daniel from running on any further. "You won't be asked to do anything that will keep you from sleeping at night. What we would like you to do is to return home and step up your involvement with Ms. Murphy." 

"And?"

"And we are going to provide you with some convincing misinformation to let Ms. Murphy discover."

"That's it?" Daniel asked, clearly not thinking it was.

Carson and Romano exchanged glances. They had read Daniel's file and both knew how brilliant he was. Treating him like a patsy wasn't going to work. Carson said, "That's all you need to know about. So you can keep sleeping. Look I promise you that nothing you or Mr. Atherton will do will be more than planting misinformation. You will not be aiding and abetting anything worse." 

Romano once again proved his inexperience by getting heavy-handed with the wrong citizen. "Should you get carried away and decide to warn Ms. Murphy that we are on to her, it will make us take more drastic measures as far as she is concerned and have very negative fallout for Mr. Atherton."

Daniel was livid. He stood up. "Get off this property. Now. I will cooperate but I will not be threatened."

Carson also stood. He pulled a long envelope from an inside pocket. "Please study this. Make yourself believe that this is the truth. Don't tell her anything but answer questions with this in the back of your mind. If a little something slips, and it will sooner or later, we want this to be what slips. And not a word of this in any way shape or form to anyone including people in Cheyenne Mountain with the highest of clearances except Mr. Atherton." He locked gazes with Daniel. "Do I have your word on that?"

Daniel hesitated but eventually choked out,"You have my word."

Romano and Carson tromped back down the stairs. Romano went ahead to the car but Carson turned back to Daniel. "Norm got a little heavy handed Dr. Jackson but the government will deal with this, one way or the other. You are the key to seeing that it's dealt with in a way you can be comfortable with."

As he was walking away, he called back, "Thank you for your time, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel fell into the chair and didn't move for an hour. There was too much activity going on in his brain to have to also be dealing with moving his body. Then, his plan of action decided, he got up from the chair and went into the cabin. Within 30 minutes, he was packed and had the cabin closed up. He got home it about dark, making record time.

While still on the road, he called Douglas on his cell and they decided to meet at Daniel's. When Douglas came in, he went straight to the kitchen and found himself a Guinness. He sat down in the chair across from the couch and he and Daniel just looked at each other for awhile. 

Finally Daniel said, "You need to know. The FBIs who came to see me were making some pretty naked threats as far as you are concerned."

"I know. They were very out in the open with me too," Douglas confirmed. "They emphasized to you too that not even the flies on the wall could know about this, right?"

Daniel nodded. "That might be the hardest thing you ever did, Danny," Douglas said sadly. 

"Why? What are you talking about?" Daniel was confused.

"It's Her. You might actually have your chance. But dating another woman is not going to help." Daniel was looking even more baffled. "She sent back all the little cocktail napkins that said 'Pete and Samantha' on them and defrocked her bridesmaids. Then she came to see me to ask me what I thought your feelings were about her. I think she has missed all the friend things she had with you and recent events have made her realize that maybe she was missing out on something else."

Daniel looked at Douglas stupefied and then said, "Yeah right. Like I believe that. It really isn't funny or helpful right now, Douggie."

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Douglas made the gesture. "Well, if I weren't already technically dead." He moved to the couch to sit next to Daniel.

He put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "You've got to stay away from her because if she makes some sort of declaration and then you are all over some other woman, she's going to put up walls that even Joshua couldn't knock down. You've got another, what, 9 days off. I think the Fibbies thought they could make it happen that fast. With any luck, you won't see Sam at all."

Daniel looked at Douglas and shook his head. "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up soon."

"I know. So do I. Say, they you give you something to read?" Douglas pulled out his envelope. "Wonder if they were exactly the same. How about we trade?"

Daniel pulled out his and handed it to Douglas. When he opened up Douglas', written on the top in bold letters was "Say nothing. This apartment and your car are probably bugged. Your clothes and your shoes could easily have been bugged. I've got some new clothes for you. Put them on and let's go somewhere where they can't be listening."

To make it look legit, Daniel read enough of the three pages to know that they said the same thing as what he had been given. He handed them back, "Yeah, looks like the same."

Douglas said, "I agree." Then he seemed suddenly struck by a thought. "Bugger. I got to go out to the car. When you took off for the cabin, you left your gym bag in my car. I'm tired of looking at it."

He was back in a minute and handed the gym bag to Daniel. He said, "You know, if we're supposed to go over after these women, you need to smell prettier Danny. You have definite eau de cabin. Why don't you take a shower, change. I'll call up Corinne and see if we can set something up."

Later in a club with deafening racket all around them, they waited until the women made their required pilgrimage to the ladies room. Douglas put his mouth almost on Daniel's ear and said, "I can't let you blow this with Sam because of threats to me. If you have to, tell her. I believe she can be trusted."

Daniel studied him for a minute and then whispered back. "You are the truest friend I have ever had. I'm not telling Sam anything unless I can be absolutely sure it's not going to come back on you." The two men clasped hands very briefly.

Daniel was very impressed with the acting job he did over the next 5 days. He knew he couldn't make love to her convincingly and he didn't want to compromise what he believed about sex in any case. He used a ploy copied right out of a movie and told Briana that he had had a problem with physical intimacy ever since his wife's death because he blamed himself for what had happened to her. This had kept him from feeling free to be with anyone else. The story went that he felt more alive with her than he had in years and if she could be patient with him and take it slowly he thought there was hope. 

They let the women set the frequency with which they saw them so they didn't scare them off. The second time they went out, Briana didn't go home but spent the night with Daniel although they only shared a bed. He pretended to sleep but was so wired that he couldn't. About 2:00 AM she got up quietly and went to search his house. She spent about an hour at it. Daniel had no way of knowing whether she found anything but when she was eager to see him again the next night, he concluded she was still looking.

The next time she stayed over the same pattern repeated itself. This time she was only out of bed for a half-an-hour. Daniel watched her carefully the next morning when they said goodbye. Did she seem a little less eager for their date to start late that evening? At this point, he couldn't tell what he was observing and what was wishful thinking. 

When there was a knock on his door just after dark, he opened it quickly expecting to find Douglas. Instead to his dismay, it was Sam. He stared at her, completely at a loss.

She looked very uncomfortable and finally said, "Can I please come in?" almost as if she was expecting him to refuse.

"You know what," he said at last, "I really feel like a walk. Let's go for a walk, huh?"

"Oookay," she said, taken aback, but completely willing. They walked three blocks to a little park and sat side by side on swings. 

"Did Douglas say anything to you about talking to me?" she asked. 

Daniel thought about playing dumb but knew she would never believe it. There was no way Douglas would have kept that conversation to himself. He scuffed at the gravel with his foot. "Yeah, he mentioned it. He said you and Pete called off the wedding. He made it sound like it was your idea."

"It was. Pete is a wonderful, wonderful guy. But all the wanting in the world to have the typical American dream could not make him be the right guy in the end."

Daniel couldn't stop himself. "Douglas also said you asked about me. Did I have anything to do with this or was it your feelings for Jack?" He traced designs in the gravel. Almost any answer would be problematic but he had to know.

"There are two dimensions to being a couple and having it be good enough to want it to last." She laughed ruefully. "Be patient because you are about to get the short course on the newfound Samantha Carter theory of love." She twirled slightly in her swing, looking out into the soft night and the lights twinkling in the houses rimming the park. "You have to have really good companionship. Share things. Enjoy talking to each other for hours on end." She reached over and touched his hand for a moment. "Like we always have. And there has to be something physical." She reached over and grabbed the chain of his swing. "Do you agree?"

"I think a lot of couples are pretty okay with mostly one or the other. Maybe most marriages are mainly built on only one or the other but to be really good, I guess I agree."

She let go of the chain and started to twirl again. "You are the only one with whom I ever really had the companionship side. And that's the side that I think matters the most. Sex gets less and less important although they say it never stops mattering."

"Jack and Pete, I respect and like both of them but when I look it hard, it seems like mostly physical attraction. Neither of them really want to talk about the things I want to talk about. They're both bright but sometimes they can't keep up with me." She stopped talking for a minute and then said, so sadly, "My parents had all of it. It was the most wonderful love. And then he lost her, it almost destroyed him. And I think I decided that I really didn't want it all. It was too dangerous."

She stopped her swing and stood up. She stood in front of him and held out her hands. He took them and stood so close to her, within an inch of touching her body but feeling only its warmth. He was glad it was dark because he was afraid and hopeful and so many other emotions and he was sure they were all showing on his face.

"Daniel, I've been trying to psychoanalyze myself and now agree that it's dangerous to practice medicine without a license. I honestly can't figure out why I never thought about you sexually and then, all of a sudden, I can't think about anything else." She put her arms around his neck. "I've gone over things you've said and I'm convinced you feel something for me."

He didn't say anything. Instead he ran his hands down her back and pulled her against him. Her breath caught. Then he kissed her. It wasn't particularly skilled. It was too raw and too urgent for that. She matched his need in her response. The kiss went on for a very long time. At last they broke apart. 

Daniel surprised her by putting his arm around her and leading her toward the fountain in the middle of the park. He sat down on the lip and pulled her down on his lap. "Sam," he breathed into her hair. "I love you. It killed me to hear you talk about Jack and Pete and I got to the point when I couldn't take it any more. And I thought maybe if I wasn't there, you would miss me."

She responded by kissing him deeply and the resulting excitement almost made them fall into the fountain. He stopped her kisses after a minute. "There's something you have to know and you can't tell anyone. I mean not Jack or Teal'c or anyone. Promise?" Sam agreed. 

"The FBI knows that Briana, the woman I've been seeing, is trying to get information on Doug and on the Stargate. For awhile, Corinne, the one Doug has been dating looked she might be part of it too but they've cleared her. They want me to keep seeing Briana as a way of leaking misinformation that may lead her people down the wrong path, wrong enough to protect Doug. I gave my word I wouldn't say anything to anyone and there's a real threat there Sam. I have to keep seeing Briana until she ends it."

Sam was very still. "Do you believe me?" he asked, afraid of what she might say.

At last she answered in a very small voice, "Yes. But what does this mean?"

"They know you came to see me and they are probably watching us right now. I am praying that the fountain noise has made it impossible for them to understand us with whatever remote listening device they might be using."

She started to look around but he clamped on the back of her neck, hard. "Be careful Sam. We are going to have to make this believable. You need to find out about Briana and make a scene. Otherwise they'll know I told you."

He shifted so he could see the luminescent dial of his watch. "I'm supposed to pick her up at 9:00. We could stay here a little longer, then you leave. Come back in the morning and make a scene."

Sam asked, with deadly calm, "You're going to sleep with her?"

"I told her I had problems with intimacy since Sha'ree died and she is supposed to be helping me slowly get over it."

"You're serious," Sam said, incredulous. 

"So far it's working." Daniel shrugged. "It's a little hard on my ego that she believed it so readily but better than the alternative."

Sam considered the situation for a moment while Daniel stroked her hair. "Okay," she said at last and kissed him fiercely.

Daniel picked up Briana as planned and they went to have sushi. He was very pleased that she seemed to be building up to a break up. She talked about how she was thinking of taking some time off from graduate school and accepting a dream job she had been offered in New York. She started an argument over the choice of DVD's to rent. He was reasonably certain she got up for a only a few moments during the night.

The next morning, he was drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper in his briefs and a t-shirt when the doorbell rang. He only cracked the door and tried to look very guilty as he saw Sam standing there with a sack of bagels and a couple of coffees. "Hey Sam, what a great surprise! You should have called. I need a shave and I have dragon breath. How about if you let me get cleaned up and meet you at the park in 15?"

"You are going to leave me out here because you need to clean up?" She let her voice get louder. "Why can't I come in and wait?"

Briana provided the answer, coming up behind Daniel and looking around him. "Because," she said silkily, "he isn't alone."

Sam stood stock still for a moment and then yelled at Daniel. "After the way you kissed me last night and the things you said, you turn around and sleep with some other woman. You, you bastard."

She dropped the sack and one of the lattes on the ground. She tore the top off the other latte, pushed the door open, and threw it at both of them. Then she stamped on what was left of the breakfast and ran out to her car. The tires squealed as she drove off.

They closed the door, coffee dripping off both of them. "That was your 'co-worker' Daniel from the restaurant?" Briana asked tightly. "Just what kind of work were the two of you doing last night?"

Daniel stammered something out. She put her hands on her hips and looked at him with disgust. "You know, I don't need to put up with your crap any more." She pulled up the tail of his t-shirt and wiped off her face, went back in and grabbed her purse, and left.

Daniel slammed the door behind him and cheered. He was free but not out of the woods. He immediately called Douglas. "You alone?"

"Corinne got in a huge fight with me last night, threw my key at me, and left."

"I'm sorry but I know what you mean. Briana just took herself off in a similar state of high dudgeon."

"I love it when you use words like that 'dudgeon.' You would have been quite the Victorian poet."

"Stop it Doug. Listen, there's still a problem. Sam caught me with Briana. She got pretty angry."

"As in…"

"As in she threw a latte all over both of us." Daniel suddenly realized it was still dripping down his neck. "So I have a campaign to plan."

It took three weeks before Daniel and Sam felt like they could convincingly allow her anger to cool. Douglas got so into helping Daniel with his romantic assault on Fort Sam that Daniel never told him that it was all an act.

Shortly after that, he ran into Jack in the parking lot as he was leaving for the day. "Jack, how's it going?" he said, feeling very friendly toward an old friend he had nearly lost through jealousy.

Jack masked his surprise well and answered, "Not bad considering the mileage."

"You want to join us for a drink and some darts at Aggie's?"

"Us? You mean you and Douglas?" Jack asked.

"And Sam and Teal'c." Daniel smiled. "You know those unhealthy team dynamics?"

Jack looked at him warily, "Yeah."

"All better now."

Many thanks to my excellent beta, Nerowill. If you like this story, she deserves a lot of the credit. If you don't, it's probably because I didn't listen to her carefully enough. 


End file.
